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founding

It amazes me that Iran hasn't adopted a version of the Internet similar to China's. Authoritarian theocrats cannot handle information being so available, even if they were well-intentioned.

Perhaps they simply can't exert the same leverage and manipulation that Beijing does. I can't be sure of their technical prowess, either; as I understand it, even their hacking operations lack polish.

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Unfortunately, I am not surprised by the response by the rulers of Iran. First I have some very limited personal experience dealing with the sanctions issue in Washington and Brussels and the truth of the matter is if Iran really wanted too they could find many ways to evade, challenge or get around the US sanctions. The US sanctions instead are being used to justify a Kim Il Song style "juche" hermit kingdom style of self reliance.

One issue I think is many of the big countries on the borders of the EU such as Russia, Turkey, and Iran really do not like the EU much more than they like the US. Thus the Erdogan's of the world have no interest in building the EU up as counterpole to the US. I compare this to say Mexico and the rest of South America where the US has a lot of influence but which there is also a longstanding dislike of America. In Mexico and the rest of South America the EU is actually viewed much favorable as an "alternative" power to the US and a lot of South Americans and Mexico would like to see the EU as more of an equal to the US while in Turkey for example has very little love for either the US or the EU.

**The fact the most South Americans get visa free travel to the EU but not the US while Turkey and Russia don't get Visa free travel to either the US or the EU plays into this asymmetry.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_policy_of_the_Schengen_Area

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_policy_of_the_United_States#/media/File:Visa_policy_of_the_USA.svg

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